What types of enterprises require food commodity inspection agency services?

According to the 2025 new version of Food Safety Management Measures," the following three types of enterprises must entrust inspection and quarantine agents:

• Foodproductionenterprisesexportingforthefirsttime
• Exporthigh-riskfoods(dairyproducts/infantformula/foodsforspecialmedicalpurposes)
• Smallandmedium-sizedenterpriseswithoutawell-establishedqualityandsafetymanagementsystem.

Taking a frozen food company served by our company as an example,due to the lack of an HACCP certification system,it successfully completed the export inspection to Japan after supplementing quality documents through an agency.

How to Choose a Reliable Commodity Inspection Agency?

3.How to Identify High-quality Agency Service Providers?

• OfficiallyCertified:
  • CustomsAEOAdvancedCertificationEnterprise
  • CustomsInspectionandQuarantineAgencyFilingforEntry-ExitInspectionandQuarantine
• Industry experience:
  • Atleast3yearsofexperienceinfoodcommodityinspectionoperations.
  • Therearesuccessfulcasesinthesamecategory(e.g.frozenfood/cannedfood/seasonings).
• Service capabilities:
  • Provideafull-processvisualtrackingsystem.
  • Equippedwithateamofprofessionalfoodinspectors

What specific services does commodity inspection agency include?

Professional agencies should provide four core services:

• Pre-auditservice:Advancereviewofenterpriseproductionrecordsandtestreports.
• DocumentPreparation:Compilebilingual(Chinese-English)healthcertificatesandinspectionreports.
• On-sitecooperation:Accompanythecustomstoconducton-siteinspections(withtheadditionofvideoinspectionmethodsin2025)
• Emergencyhandling:Developarectificationplanfornon-conformingproducts.

Please note that since the implementation of Announcement No.102 of the General Administration of Customs in 2023,compliance review of food packaging for export has become a mandatory inspection item.

What is the complete process for commodity inspection agency?

• Preparationphase(3-5days)
  • Signatripartiteserviceagreement
  • Collectcorporatequalificationdocuments(SCCertificate/ExportFilingCertificate).
• Declaration phase (2 days)
  • EnterdatathroughtheSingleWindowforInternationalTrade.
  • Uploadtheelectronicversionofthetestreport
• Inspection phase (1-3 days)
  • Cooperatewithcustomssamplinginspection
  • HandlingAbnormalLaboratoryTestSituations

How is the commodity inspection agency fee calculated?

In 2025,the industry’s charging standards mainly include the following:

• Basicservicefee:800-2000RMB/batch(dependingonproductrisklevel)
• TestingSurcharge:Chargedbasedonactuallaboratorytestingitems.
• ExpressProcessingFee:Anadditional30%servicefeewillbechargedifcertificationisrequiredwithin48hours.

An export case of a certain condiment shows that the total cost of routine commodity inspection is approximately 3,500 yuan,with microbiological testing accounting for 60% of the cost.

What are the common reasons for failing commodity inspection?

According to the statistics of our company for the first half of 2025,the main problems are concentrated in the following aspects:

• Labelsdonotmeettherequirementsoftheimportingcountry(accountingfor38%).
• Excessiveadditives(especiallytheuseofpreservatives)
• Abnormalmicrobialindicators(commonlyfoundincasesofthawingandrefreezingfrozenfoods)

It is recommended that enterprises confirm the latest regulations of the target country with the agency before production.For example,the new EU regulation (EU) 2025/347 on food contact materials has come into effect this March.